The Agent and his Shadow
by Bml1997
Summary: Adriana was a criminal, known to all as 'La Sombra' and 'the Shadow'. Pedro was a young agent assigned to bring her in. This is the story of how Juarez's parents first met.
1. The Target

Chapter 1: The Target

Agent Pedro Mateo readjusts his earmuffs and aims his gun at the target. His flipper pulls back on the trigger and he fires three times. Someone then taps him on the shoulder. Pedro gives a small jump and turns around. "Bob! I swear, one of these días I'll end up shooting you instead of the target, if you keep on sneaking up on me like this!" He exclaims with a small laugh as he takes the earmuffs and safety glasses off.

Agent Bob Garrison grins back with a small laugh, also. "I'd like to see you try, Pedro. But, anyway, Commander Harold wants to see you...I think he said something about a new assignment or something like that."

Pedro nods. "Alright, Bobby, you can tell him I'll be right there after I finish this last round, okay?"

"Actually, he said he wanted you there ASAP."

Pedro looks at Bob with a small sigh. "Fine. ¿Dónde está?"

"What?"

Pedro face-flippers. "Right, right, I forgot you know as much español as I know francés...Where is he?" He says with a small sigh and looks at Bob again.

Bob looks back at him. "In his office, as always."

Pedro nods. "Okay...See you after work, Bobby?" He asks as he gathers the gun and the safety equipment.

Bob shakes his head. "No, Pedro, not today..."

"Aw, por qué?" Pedro stops gathering things and gives Bob his full attention.

"What?"

"No, why."

"Oh, because Risette and I have plans tonight."

"Ah, okay...Well, tell her and Edmond I said hola, or hi, whichever." Pedro gives a small laugh as he starts towards the door of the gun-training room.

"Will do." Bob calls after him with a laugh.

Pedro nods and leaves the room. He leaves the safety equipment on a table just outside the room and holsters his small gun. He then slides quickly to Commander Harold's office. He knocks briefly before entering with a small smirk. "You want me, Commander?" He asks as he comes in.

Commander Harold, an older penguin with violet eyes and graying feathers nods. "Yes, indeed I do, Agent Mateo." He says as he looks at Pedro. "Take a seat." He then orders. Pedro sits in a seat and looks back at Commander Harold with his hazel eyes. "I've got a special mission for you..."

"You don't say?" Pedro says a bit sarcastically, not really caring all that much. "What is it? Another boring escorting job?" He asks with a small snort. He puts his flippers behind his head and leans back a little in the chair.

Commander Harold shakes his head. "No, Pedro. I have something much, much better in mind..."

"Which is...?" Harold tosses a black file-folder at him. Pedro catches it and flips through it. He glanced curiously at Harold. "What's this?"

Harold puts his flippers together and looks at Pedro with a slightly amused expression. "Why a file about your new target of course." He says with a grin.

"Target? Wha—?"

"The Shadow. A criminal that has been plaguing Spain and recently other Spanish speaking countries. Not much is known about him yet...Nothing really at all, other than that he likes to use knives." Harold explains.

Pedro looks at him. "And you want me to find him and bring him in?" He asks. Harold nods. "Piece of cake." Pedro says with a shrug. "So...Where was the last place that he was spotted?"

Commander Harold gets out a remote and presses a button. A projection of a map is shown on a wall. He then shines a little red pointer-laser at the map. "Right there." He circles a city on the map with the laser-pointer. "Barcelona, Spain."

Pedro nods. "Okay. You have a transport there for me?"

"Of course."

"Bueno. How soon do you want me to go after this...'Shadow'?"

Harold looks at him. "Why immediately, Agent Mateo."

"Oh...Alright." Pedro says looking at Commander Harold. Harold continues to look at him. "Oh, you meant as in now, immediately?" Harold nods. "Oh...Okay, adios..." He says as he gets up and leaves. Pedro hears Commander Harold laughing a little behind him and he rolls his eyes. He then slides to the locker room and waddles to his locker; locker 037.

Pedro opens the locker. He gets out his military dog-tags and agent badge and puts them on. He then gets out his gun-holster belt and puts it on also. He transfers over his small gun to it and then gets a couple of slightly larger guns out, too. Pedro grabs a pair of flipper-cuffs and hangs them on the belt. Pedro then shuts the locker back and gives a small jump when he suddenly sees Bob standing there right beside him. "So...Where is the commander sending you?" Bob asks.

Pedro gives a small sigh. "Barcelona after some 'shadow' criminal...And will you _please_ stop doing that?!"

"Doing what?" Bob asks with a small smirk.

"The sneaking! For Cuzco's sake, Bobby!"

"And what the grilled kipper does Cuzco have to do with anything?" Bob asks back with a laugh. Pedro rolls his eyes with a small groan. "So, you're leaving now?"

"Sí. Harold said I was to immediately go after this shadow and bring him into custody." Pedro says with a nod. He looks at Bob. "Guess I'll be seeing you in a few días then." He says.

Bob looks at him and then nods. "Right...You be careful, Pedro."

Pedro looks at him as he slowly backs out of the locker room. "Am I ever anything other than?" He asks with a smirk.

Bob looks at him. "I'm being serious, Pedro. Don't do anything rash."

"What are you? Mi madre?" Pedro replies back with a chuckle. "I'll be fine, Bobby. No worries." He then leaves the room. Pedro waddles outside and then slides to the airplanes just outside of the Lima Base.

One of the planes he can tell is getting ready to go; he guesses that this one is his transport. Pedro waddles on to the plane. "Hola, señor pilot? This plane's going to Barcelona, no?" He asks. The pilot nods and Pedro sits down in one of the seats on the plane.


	2. The Witness

**A.N.—Okay, this is my newest story! (And I meant to put an Author's note on the previous chapter...Forgot though XD) I thought it'd be interesting to write one about how the parents of Juarez (from _The Jungle Mission_ and _Runaway Love_) got together. So, I hope you'll enjoy :D**

* * *

Chapter 2: A Witness

The plane lands in Barcelona and Pedro slides off the plane and out of the airport. He stands up just outside the airport and looks around. "Let's see...Where to look for a criminal that nada is known about..." Pedro mumbles to himself. He waddles into the actual city part of Barcelona and looks around. "...This may be un poco more difícil than I thought it'd be..."

"Um, señor? Are you lost?" Asks a young Spanish penguin not much older than adolescence.

Pedro turns and looks at him. "Umm...I don't think so...You wouldn't happen to know of anyone who has had a run in with 'the Shadow,' would you?" He asks.

The penguin looks at him astonished. "You mean La Sombra? Sí..."

"You do? Bueno, who?" Pedro asks.

"Porqué?"

Pedro looks both ways and pulls out his badge and shows it to the penguin. "Por qué I am agent Pedro Mateo and I'm under orders to find and arrest this La Sombra...So, can you tell me who I can talk to to find out more about him?"

The penguin looks at him and nods. "Sí, señor...Follow me." He starts waddling off and Pedro quickly follows after him. The penguin leads him to a pub and Pedro looks at him slightly confused.

"I thought you said you were taking me to someone who has seen or knows something of La Sombra?" He asks.

"I have." The penguin says. "One of the bartenders, Rosela, she can tell you some things."

"Oh, okay, gracias." Pedro says and gives the penguin a small smile. The penguin nods and waddles off. "Wait! Señor!" Pedro calls and the penguin stops.

"Sí?" Pedro flicks a twenty euro note to the penguin. The penguin looks from the note to Pedro. "Oh, señor, I couldn't possi—"

Pedro holds up a flipper for him to stop talking. "I insist." He says and then waddles into the pub, leaving the astonished penguin standing there outside. He looks around and waddles silently up to the bar inside and takes a seat, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

The bartender waddles over to Pedro. "What can I get for you, darl'n?" She asks Pedro.

"A drink and a señorita Rosela."

The bartender gives him a very odd look. "Come again?" Pedro briefly flashes his badge to the bartender and her eyes widen a little. "Oh...Euhm, okay, come this way, señor." She says with a slightly nervous tone. She waddles into a little room just behind the bar and Pedro follows her in.

"Are you Rosela?" Pedro asks. The penguin nods and Pedro nods also. "Okay, well, I was told that you may know some things about La Sombra?" He says looking at her.

Rosela nods. "Sí...He comes in here every once in a while."

Pedro looks at her with raised nonexistent eyebrows. "He does? What does he look like?" Pedro takes out a small notebook and a pencil and glances at Rosela.

"Well...He's got these bright, green eyes...And a dark...I believe it's blue...Probably closer to indigo, cloak. He always has the hood up covering his face though, so that's about as good as a description as I can give you, señor." She says.

Pedro nods and jots down some notes. "About how tall would you estimate he is?"

"Mmm..." Rosela thinks for a moment. "A little short than you."

"Alright." Pedro finishes his notes. "Anything more about him you can tell me?" He looks at Rachela from the notebook.

"Whenever he comes it's always a Friday night around ten." She says, looking back at him a bit nervously.

"Hmm, okay, gracias, señorita Rosela." He says with a nod and puts his notebook away. He then gets out a small card and hands it to Rosela. "If you happen to find out more about him, just give a call and ask for Pedro."

"Okay." Rosela says and takes the card from Pedro. Pedro nods and exits the room. He puts the payment for his drink, if he had actually gotten one, on the bar and waddles out. He waddles over to the closest hotel and checks in and then goes to his room.

"Okay...Tomorrow is viernes...Which is Friday...Maybe señor Sombra will make his visit to the pub...And if he does, I'll be there waiting." Pedro murmurs to himself as he plans out his next move. He then orders a tuna sandwich with salsa from room service, eats it, and then goes to bed. Tomorrow he knows will be a very long day.


	3. La Sombra

**A.N.— And here's chapter three! Enjoy! :D**

* * *

Chapter 3: La Sombra

The next day Pedro spends most of the day in his hotel room bored out of his mind. Then, he leaves the hotel at nine-thirty that night for the pub. Pedro slides there and then walks casually inside and sits down at the bar. "A drink, por favor." He says his order to a different bartender than yesterday.

"Sí, señor." The bartender says and passes a drink to Pedro. Pedro takes it with a nod from him and then takes a small sip from it. He inconspicuously glances at the door every so often, looking for a hooded figure.

"And to think he may not even show tonight..." Pedro mumbles to himself as he takes another small sip of his drink.

"Who are you waiting for?" The bartender asks curiously as he wipes the bar counter some.

Pedro looks at him. "No one really." He lies and takes a slightly larger sip and then looks over at the door again.

"Oh..." The bartender says slightly disappointed. He then shrugs and waddles off to tend to another customer. Pedro glances after him and then looks back at his drink. Suddenly the door opens and Pedro glances at it again. A figure in a dark hooded cloak waddles in.

"Bingo..." Pedro mutters silently to himself with a tiny and sly grin. He casually watches the mysterious penguin waddle into the pub. The penguin sits next to Pedro at the bar and orders a light drink. Pedro hears him and gives his own drink a funny look. _'His voice doesn't really match that of a criminal...'_ He thinks silently to himself and takes a larger sip of his drink and looks back over at the hooded penguin.

The penguin catches his look and Pedro sees the green eyes, which narrow at him. "What are you looking at, niño?" The penguin asks a bit gruffly as he takes a sip of his drink.

Pedro shakes his head. "Nada, señor." He says and takes a sip of his own drink. This penguin beside him, his voice sounded almost...Feminine? Pedro shakes the thought from his head. _'Nah...Señoritas aren't murderers. Stop being loco, Pedro.'_ He thinks to himself.

The penguin's green eyes narrow even more. "Then mind to keep your ojos* to yourself, okay? Before you end up not needing them any longer..." He growls at Pedro.

Pedro puts up his flippers to show he isn't in for a fight...Yet. "Okay, whatever." He says and looks at his drink, with an occasional inconspicuous glance in the figure's direction. The penguin soon finishes his drink, puts his payment on the counter, and leaves silently. Pedro quickly finishes his own drink, pays, and then sneakily follows the penguin out.

La Sombra waddles out of the pub and then down a dark, small alley. Pedro follows him though it, until suddenly, the penguin disappears. "Well, where'd he go?" Pedro mumbles to himself as he stops and looks around. The alley has come to a dead-end and the suspect has just vanished.

"Make another sound and I'll run you through, comprendes?" Says a voice suddenly behind him. This voice is _definitely_ feminine. Pedro feels the sharp point of something in his back and he gives a small nod. "Bueno. Now say your name and why the atún* you are following me."

Pedro tries to glance over his shoulder to see who is behind him, but then feels the point push a little closer to his back. "Me llamo Pedro." He says. "And I was just curious..." He lies and feels the point prod his back a little harder.

"_Liar_!" The voice hisses near his earhole. "You're a _cop_, and you know it." The penguin behind Pedro forcefully turns him around and pushes him up against one of the alley's walls. Pedro looks at the penguin.

"Okay...So maybe I'm a curious cop named Pedro?" He says with a small smirk before quickly moving his flipper and knocking back La Sombra's hood before he can react. The next thing Pedro knows it the knife that had been poking him in the back is pointed right between his eyes. He looks past the knife with wide eyes at the face that was revealed went the hood fell back. "You're—You're a _señorita_?!" He gasps.

The penguin looks at him and then rolls her bright green eyes. "Well, you're a bright one, aren't you?" She says sarcastically. Pedro stares silently back at her in shock.

"B-but—But—"

"I'm also a criminal?" The penguin adds with a dark chuckle. "You're catching on quickly now, aren't you, Pedrrrrrrrrro?"

"Who _are_ you?" Pedro asks, staring at her in consternation.

"Adriana...Though most know of me as La Sombra...Those who live long enough to know me, that is..." Adriana says with a evil smirk and a small evil giggle. She then gives him a very dark look. "Look, Pedrrrro, I'm in a slight rush, and I don't really have the time to kill you at the moment, so I'll just give you a warning tonight. Follow me again, and I'll kill you. No questions asked. _I **will** kill you._ Comprendes?" She turns the knife that is in Pedro's face a little so that it glints in the moonlight.

Pedro gives a small nod. "Comprendo." He says. Pedro then finds himself thrown to the ground and alone. He looks around and sees the edge of Adriana's dark cloak disappear around a corner. He stands up and dusts himself off and glances after her. "Well...That didn't go quite as expected..." He mumbles and waddles a bit slowly towards his hotel.

* * *

_***ojos — eyes**_

_***atún — tuna**_


	4. Thoughts

**A.N.— And here's chapter 4! :D I hope y'all enjoy it! :)**

* * *

Chapter 4: Thoughts

Pedro lays on the bed in his hotel room and stares up at the ceiling fan. He watches it go slowly around and around and around as he is lost in his thoughts. "So, the Shadow is actually a chica...A very... _Very_ bonita chica..." He mumbles to himself and puts his flippers behind his head on the pillow. "A very _sassy_ and bonita chica." Pedro grins widely as the ceiling fan finally stops spinning.

_*****__**Buzzzzzz...Buzzzzzzz...***_

Pedro sits up and takes out his cell now vibrating phone. "Hola, this is Pedro." He answers it. "My status report, Commander?" Pedro glances at himself in the mirror with a slightly nervous look. "Umm..." He quickly thinks of something to say. "Well, I had a run in with the Shadow...But he, uh...Got away, sir..." Pedro waits a moment as he is forced to listen to Commander Harold's rant about his incompetence. "Sí, I pursued after him, but the trail went cold..." Pedro decides that it probably would be best if he didn't tell the commander that the Shadow is a woman...He figures the commander may have the mission given to a female agent then. "Alright, sir..." Pedro hangs the phone up with a sigh.

Pedro lays back on the bed again and stares up at the stopped fan. "Best mission ever..." He mumbles with a small yawn before going to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Pedro gets up with a smile. "Adriana...What a pretty name.." He mumbles to himself as he eats his breakfast of fish and waffles. He takes a sip of his coffee, staring at the wall lost in his thoughts again. "I wonder where she is now...And if she's sing—" Pedro slaps himself. "Pedro! She is a criminal! A murderess even! Get a hold of yourself!" He mutters to himself. "She's not up for grabs even if she _is_ single..."

Pedro finishes his breakfast and then leaves the hotel. He goes for a quiet waddle around Barcelona, mostly to try and get his mind off of Adriana, but also to look for any signs of her. _'If I was an evil murderess where would I hide at?...'_ Pedro ponders silently to himself. He silently waddles unknowingly back to the alley he had had his encounter with Adriana at.

He then sees the alley and recognizes it. "I wonder if she left any clues behind..." He says to himself and he begins to examine the alley. Pedro slides down to the dead-end and looks around at the walls and the ground. Nothing. He waddles slowly back towards the entrance of the alley. Nothing. Pedro sighs and sits down with his back against one of the walls.

"La Sombra lives up to her nickname well." Pedro says to himself with a small chuckle. "Not a thing here but shadows...Too bad they're not the shadow I'm looking for." Suddenly Pedro feels what feels like a small rock bounce off his head. "Ow!" He looks upward while he rubs his head.

"You keep talking to yourself like this, Pedrrrrrro, and someone may think you're loco." Says a voice out of no where. Pedro looks around and then sees a penguin outline in the shadow. The figure steps out revealing Adriana.

Pedro looks at her very surprised. "What are you doing here?" He asks as he without much movement takes a small tracking device out from a pocket on his belt.

"I could ask _you_ the same." Adriana says as she crosses her flippers with a small smirk. She hasn't noticed what he is doing.

"I...Erm...No reason..."

Adriana rolls her eyes. "Um hmm, like I believe that." She says sarcastically.

Pedro looks at her. "Well, what are you doing here?" He asks.

"I left something here by accident..." She says. "Which was all thanks to _you_!" Adriana says this with a small growl in Pedro's direction. She waddles over to the end of the alley past Pedro, and as she does this, Pedro flicks the small device onto the edge of Adriana's dark cloak. Adriana waddles over to a sheet of paper and it and puts it in a pocket of her cloak.

Pedro watches her and decides to have some fun with this conversation. "Hey, how come you haven't killed me yet?" He asks with a smirk.

Adriana shrugs. "Would you like for me to kill you now? I mean, I have plenty of time to do so now, if that's what you want, niño." She says as she takes out her knife and looks at Pedro with a bit of a evil glint in her green eyes.

Pedro shakes his head. "No, I'm fine with staying alive here, but gracias." He replies jokingly. "So, where are you going?" He asks as Adriana waddles past him again. He glances at the trim of her cloak and sees that the device is still there.

"Like I'd tell the 'curious cop' where I'm going, ha ha! Don't make me laugh." Adriana says as she rolls her eyes and waddles out of the alley. Pedro watches her and then gets up and slides after her until she vanishes. _Again_.

Pedro stops with a sigh. "Darn." He mutters a bit crossly to himself. He then feels a small rock hit him in the head again. "Ow!" He exclaims again and looks around for the culprit as he rubs his head. He then sees Adriana giving him an irate look not too far away. She waddles over to him.

"What part of 'follow me and I will kill you' do you _not_ understand?" Adriana asks with a growl as she unsheathes her knife and points it in Pedro's face.

Pedro shrugs. "I'm a terrible listener." He says.

Adriana growls at him. "...If it wasn't that this is broad daylight, I'd kill you now...But, I think I'll wait until dark and kill you when you're sleeping."

"Fantástico, want me to tell you my room number?" Pedro replies jokingly.

Adriana narrows her eyes at him. Pedro guesses that she hadn't liked his joke much. "Just keep your beak to your own business and out of mine, okay? Conceder this your _final_ warning, Pedrrrro." She then slides quickly off. Pedro watches her go with a small shrug. He has a tracking device on her now; he could easily find her on his laptop...

Pedro face-flippers as he realizes that he left his computer back in Peru. "Well, darn." He mutters a bit agrivatedly. "Guess I'll have to postpone tracking her down for a día or dos..." He slides to his hotel room.


	5. Hanging Out

**A.N.— Okay, and here is chapter 5! Enjoy! :D**

* * *

Chapter 5: Hanging Out

The next morning Pedro leaves his hotel and goes to the airport. From there, he hops aboard a plane and flies back to Peru. When he gets to Peru, he slides off the plane and into the Lima base. He nods a greeting to different penguins he passes on his way towards the locker room.

"Pedro! What are you doing back so soon?" Calls a voice from behind him. Pedro stops and turns with a smile.

"Ah, hola there, Bobby! I made the muy stupido mistake of leaving mi computadora at mi casa...And it's kind of difícil to track a criminal without the software, you know?" Pedro says with a small laugh.

Bob also gives a small laugh. "I see...Well, since you're here, maybe we can hang a bit before you go back to...Spain, wasn't it?"

Pedro nods. "Sí, Spain...And sure, we can do that." He smiles and then slides off to the locker room for his house keys, which he had also left there. He turns the combination code on the locker, but it doesn't open. "What the kipper?!" He mutters and tries it again.

Bob waddles up to him and gives him a very strange look. "Uh, Pedro? You okay there?" He asks.

Pedro glances at him. "Yep, I'm fine." He replies and tries the combination for a third time.

"Then would you like to tell me why you're trying to open _my_ locker?" Bob says and he continues to give Pedro a strange and slightly concerned look.

"Wha—oh..." Pedro says and then gives a bit of an embarrassed laugh. "Right..." He then waddles to his actual locker and opens it and gets out his keys.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Bob asks.

Pedro nods. "I couldn't be better, I assure you." He gives Bob a large smile.

Bob looks at him. "O–kay then...So, are we going to get your computer first or hang out?" He asks.

"Hang out first." Pedro says. "I don't want to risk someone spilling something on mi computadora." Bob nods, understandingly. The two penguins then waddle over to a pub and sit at the bar.

"Sooo...How's the mission going?" Bob asks after they have both ordered and received their drinks. He takes a sip of his.

Pedro looks at him and takes a sip of his own drink. "Pretty good..." He says with a large smile. Pedro has started thinking of Adriana again.

Bob nods. "That's good...That's good..." He says. "Anything especially interesting that's happened?"

"Define 'interesting'." Pedro looks at him and takes a rather large sip.

Bob looks at him a bit curiously. "Like any fighting?"

Pedro shakes his head. "There hasn't been any fighting..." He says.

Bob nods. "How about girls, eh?" He looks at Pedro as Pedro almost chokes on a sip of his drink.

Pedro looks at Bob. "Umm...Sí..." He says.

Bib raises a nonexistent eyebrow at Pedro's reaction. "I thought so...So, what's her name?" Bob asks curiously.

"Adriana." Pedro says with a small smile.

"Does she have a last name?"

Pedro shrugs. "No sé*...She didn't say and I forgot to ask..."

Bob nods. "Alright...And what's she like?" He takes a drink from his cup and looks at Pedro.

"Well...She's hot...very, _very_ hot...and sassy." Pedro says and gets a bit of a dreamy look on his face as he thinks about Adriana. "And the way she unnecessarily rolls the r in my name makes her sound like she's purring like una gata*."

Bob gives a small chuckle at Pedro. "This girl's got you hard, hasn't she?" He asks with a laugh as he takes another sip.

Pedro nods. "Sí...The only thing is...She's playing extremely hard to get..." He says with a small sigh.

Bob laughs. "Aren't all the good ones like that?"

"Maybe...But she's not good...No, no, she's very, very bad." Pedro says looking at Bob with a grin.

Bob looks at him. "Define 'bad'." He says a bit suspiciously.

"Umm..." Pedro thinks for a moment. "Like...Uh...Never mind..." He says shaking his head.

Bob looks at him. "No, no I'm not going to never mind." He says. "Explain to me in what context you were using bad. You have not done anything regrettable with her have you?"

"_What?!_ No! No, I have not." Pedro says giving Bob a very weird look. "As I said, she's playing hard to get, and so, even if I wanted to do something like that, I can't."

"Good." Bob gives a silent sigh of relief.

Pedro continues to look weirdly at Bob. "And how's that good?" He asks. "I mean–Agh, never mind." He finishes his drink.

Bob looks at him. "Are you sure you're okay, Pedro?" He asks.

"I'm fine, Bob, and I haven't done anything rash." Pedro says and then glances at the clock. "...And I probably should be going if I'm going to get mi computadora and get back to Spain before tomorrow night..." He says.

Bob nods. "Okay." He says and pays for both of their drinks. He and Pedro then leave the pub and go different ways. Pedro slides to his house and gets his computer off of a desk in his study. He looks around and makes sure that he doesn't have anything else there that he needs to make sure to bring. He doesn't see anything else and so heads to the airport.

* * *

* No sé — I don't know

* una gata — a (female) cat


	6. Under Arrest

**A.N.— I hope you enjoy chapter 6! :D**

* * *

Chapter 6: Under Arrest

Pedro opens up his laptop in his hotel room in Spain. He then opens up a certain program and clicks a few keys on the keyboard with a small grin. "So that's where you're hiding..." He mumbles as he has the computer zoom in on the location. He emails the coordinates to his cell phone and turns the computer off. Then he grabs his flipper-cuffs, the keys for them, his guns, and his badge and heads out of the room.

Pedro slides out of the hotel and silently to a small house hidden in a small wooded area just outside of Barcelona. He waddles up to the house. "...I probably should have asked for a warrant first but..." He then knocks on the door. There is no answer, so Pedro unlocks the door with a skeleton key he has on his keychain and then opens it. He takes out his pistol and holds it out as he cautiously enters the house.

He looks through all the rooms, but sees no one, nor any traces of anyone. Pedro gives a small sigh of aggravation and puts his pistol away. Then the door in the living room opens and someone waddles in and stops abruptly after seeing Pedro.

"And _what_ the smoked atún are _you_ doing in _my_ house?!" Adriana exclaims; she is obviously very shocked and angry.

Pedro turns and looks at her before getting out his pistol again and pointing at her. "Adriana...Whatever your last name is..."

"Estrada." She says, looking at Pedro with a very dark and dirty glare.

Pedro nods. "Adriana Estrada, you are hereby under arrest for the murders of countless penguins and animals...And humans...And also for several robberies and for trying to overthrow the Portuguese government." He says.

Adriana looks at him very amused. "Oh, am I now?" She asks with a smirk. "First of all, you don't have a warrant to be in my house. Secondly, you don't have any _proof_ that I did any of those things. And lastly, what are you going to do if I _don't_ surrender? Shoot me?" She looks at him with a daring look and crosses her flippers. Pedro tightens his grip on the pistol. "Well, if you think you can, go ahead. _Shoot me_." She says.

Pedro pulls the trigger and fires a bullet just past Adriana's head. She looks at him slightly surprised; that bullet, if it had been half of a centimeter over would have hit her. "That was a warning shot. I won't miss twice." Pedro says in a lowered voice and a very serious look.

Adriana looks at him. "Fine." She says with a sigh. "If you think you can take me in, let's see how long you can keep me prisoner for...I bet not any longer than an hour." She says with a grin as she rolls her eyes and puts her flippers out for Pedro to cuff them.

Pedro gets his flipper-cuffs and cuffs one to one of Adriana's flippers and the other to one of his own. "Your knives?" He kind of asks, but also orders. Adriana sighs and takes out her knives and hands them all but one to Pedro. "Come on, all of them." He says holding out his flipper for it.

"Nope. I'll keep this one." She says and re-sheaths it in a hidden sheath on her side.

Pedro looks at her unbelievingly. "Oh, no, you won't."

"Oh, sí, I will." Adriana smirks and gives him a daring look.

"No. You will not." Pedro says. He then bites his tongue a little, tries not to think about what he is really doing, softly runs his flipper along her side, finds the hilt of the blade, and pulls it out.

Adriana looks at him a bit evilly. "I will be getting that back." She says.

"Not today, you won't." Pedro says. He lays the knife with other twelve knives on a nearby table. He wonders how the kipper she could possibly hide all of these on herself...And _where_ she could have...He also wonders how he's going to bring all those knives with him and Adriana without a vehicle of some sort.

"Let me guess, you hadn't thought your strategy out from here, have you?" She asks amusedly with a dark smirk.

Pedro doesn't answer her. He instead ignores her, takes out his cell phone, and calls Commander Harold. "Sir, I've got La Sombra..." He says and waits for the commander's response. "Do you have me a transport?" Pedro blinks in surprise. "Wha–What?!" Commander Harold tells him that he isn't getting a transport and that since he let the Shadow get away the first time, he must find his own way to get the criminal to Peru. "But, sir!" He gasps.

Adriana looks at him. "Things not going the way you had planned, niño?" She asks impudently with a raised nonexistent eyebrow.

Pedro gives her a small glare and ignores her. Commander Harold tells Pedro 'no buts' and then hangs up. Pedro says a few choice Spanish words irritably under his breath, before looking at Adriana. "Looks like we'll be taking the long way back to base." He says.


	7. The Keys!

**A.N.— Hello, everyone! I apologize for the long wait...But, anyway, here is chapter 7! Enjoy :D**

* * *

Chapter 7: The Keys!

Adriana looks at Pedro. "The long way?" She asks curiously.

Pedro nods. "Sí, we'll be taking a boat to Brazil and then slide from there to Base R in Peru." He says as he looks back at her.

"You're joking." Adriana gives him a look.

"I wish I was, Adriana. I wish I was." Pedro says with a silent laugh as he starts waddling quickly out of Adriana's house. She is still cuffed to his left flipper and is therefore dragged along behind him.

"Hey! Slow down! You're dragging me!"

"And what if that is what I am trying to do?" Pedro smirks at her with a joking glance and Adriana rolls her eyes. He begins to waddle a little slower so that he is no longer dragging her. They waddle along in complete silence for a while.

"So...Where are we going now, Pedrrrrrrro?" Adriana asks after some time; she has gotten extremely bored of this already.

"Right now? Right now we are going to my hotel room so that I can get some things and plan out our route further...And better..."

"Okay...And I'm to stay cuffed to you during that whole time?"

"Sí."

"But...What if one of us needs to use the baño*?" Adriana asks curiously. Pedro freezes and looks at her and Adriana looks back at him with her free flipper on her hip. "What? Is that an unreasonable pregunta* or something?"

Pedro continues to just stare at her for a moment before a small blush creeps into his face. "Well...Erm...Then I guess the other one of us will just have to turn their head and shut their ojos...Because you're staying cuffed to me until I have got you in a cell." He starts waddling forward again.

Adriana follows him. She had seen his small blush and it had given her an idea. "Alright...But what if one of us needs to take a shower or a bath? What then?" She asks with a smirk and a raised nonexistent eyebrow. Pedro ignores her and continues waddling forward, though his blush has now deepened into a much darker shade. Adriana notices this, too. "Oh? So you're ignoring me now?"

"Yup."

"Haha, I don't think so." Adriana stops waddling and puts both of her flippers on her hips and looks at Pedro. Since he is cuffed to her, his left flipper is on her hip, too; he realizes this and his blush, which he is trying his hardest to keep down and hidden, is now very visible. Adriana looks at him. "I may be your prisoner at the moment, Pedrrrrrro, but I _will not_ be an ignored prisoner. Okay?"

Pedro pulls his and Adriana's flipper away from her hip. "Euhm...We will have to see about that..." He mumbles and starts waddling again forward towards the hotel. He can tell, this is going to be a very long next few days.

They waddle along in silence again until they reach the hotel. A few bystanders give them weird looks as they waddle into the hotel and Pedro tries to ignore them as he drags Adriana into the elevator with him. He presses the button for the tenth floor. When the elevator stops, Pedro leads Adriana into his hotel room and locks it behind them. Adriana looks around the room some and sees a window. She thinks that if she can get loose from Pedro, that she could easily escape through it. She looks at Pedro again. "So...I really must stay cuffed to you while you sit and look at a mapa*?" She asks as she gives him a very bored look.

Pedro nods as he gets out the map. "Sí." He unrolls it on the table in the room.

Adriana looks at him. "But it's not like I can go anywhere...I mean, we're on the tenth floor of a hotel with the door locked..." She says with an expression of feigned innocence.

Pedro glances at her with a slightly amused expression. "Señorita Sombra, I _know_ all of that...I also know that you _will_ find a way to escape anyway if I let you loose." He says and then goes back to looking at the map. Adriana rolls her eyes with a small snort and sits down in a chair next to Pedro with her free flipper on the table and her head boredly rested upon it.

"Finished yet?" She asks looking boredly at him.

"Nope."

"How about now?"

"No more than I was one second ago." Pedro glances at Adriana as she gives an exaggerated groan of boredom. "Was that really necessary?"

"Sí, it was absolutely necessary." She says looking at him.

Pedro rolls his eyes and finishes making some notes on the map. "Okay. _Now_ I'm done." He says giving Adriana another glance as he rolls the map up again.

Adriana stands up with a nod and follows him over to the backpack that he puts the map in. "So, what are we doing _now_?" She asks.

"How about we go to sleep? Do you like that idea? I know I for one do." Pedro says looking a bit annoyedly at Adriana.

Adriana pretends to think on this for a moment. "Fine...Do I have to stay cuffed to you even when we're sleeping, too?" She asks, looking at the bed and then at Pedro.

Pedro looks back at her. "Euhm...Yeeeessss...Or...Or I guess if you'd rather I could cuff you to the bed, if you'd prefer that..." He says slowly.

"Ooh, could you?" She says as she gets an idea on how she can escape.

Pedro nods. "Sure..." He takes out the flipper-cuff keys from behind his back and Adriana quickly grabs onto them. "Hey! You don't get these!" He exclaims.

"Says who?" Adriana asks as she gives him a look and pulls on the keys.

"Says me." Pedro pulls back on the keys with his free flipper and takes a step back as he does so.

"But, _I_ say that _I_ get them." Adriana pulls back on the keys with her own free flipper and takes a couple steps back as she does so, trying to get them from Pedro's firm grip.

"And I still say _no_." Pedro yanks on the keys and pulls Adriana towards him.

"And I say _sí_!" Adriana yanks back on the keys, pulling Pedro back towards her. Pedro pulls on the keys some more and tries to get them out of Adriana's flipper by twisting it, but instead it just twirls her and twists their flipper-cuffs. Adriana continues to pull back on the keys and takes a few steps back, but Pedro, being still cuffed to her and still clinging to the keys as he is, follows after her. He yanks back on th keys and tries to pull them out of her flipper by pulling the keys over her head and behind her. Adriana still does not let go so all Pedro ends up doing is bowing her back. "_Stop_ it! Give me the keys!" Adriana growls at Pedro.

"No!" Pedro yanks on the keys forward now and causes her to stand back up straight. Adriana tugs the keys and tries to waddle to the left with them; Pedro waddles that way with her, still tightly holding the keys. They are getting really close to the window which is a little open since it is very hot in the room. "Let go of them, Adriana!"

"In your _dreams_, Pedrrrrrrrrro!" Adriana then gives the keys a really, really hard yank and both she and Pedro loose their grips on them. The keys go flying into open air. They bounce once almost in slow motion on the windowsill before falling out the window. Pedro and Adriana stare shocked after it before turning and looking angrily at the other. "Now look what you have done you idiota*!" Adriana shouts angrily at Pedro.

Pedro looks back at Adriana. "What _I've_ done?! If _you_ hadn't started pulling on them in the first place this _never_ would have happened!" He shouts back.

"Well, _you_ shouldn't have _let go_!"

"I wasn't trying to! You shouldn't have yanked them that hard!" They both look out the window again, seeing if by any chance they can glimpse the keys. They can't. Pedro sighs and looks at Adriana again. "Well...I guess you're stuck being cuffed to me tonight...And all other nights until we've made it to Base R..."

Adriana looks at Pedro slightly aghast. "No! No, no, no!"

"I'm afraid it's a sí. Sí, sí, sí."

Adriana gives a small groan. "Well, this is just gran*..." She mutters sarcastically with a small sigh.

Pedro shrugs a little. "Ah well...I guess we should start going to bed anyway...The sooner we sleep, the sooner we can get up and get to Base R to get free..." He says silently. He then gets into the bed and Adriana gets into it after him with little choice. She sticks a pillow up between him and herself in her attempts to pretend he isn't there. "Buenas noches*, señorita Sombra." Pedro says softly before he quickly falls asleep.

"Whatever..." Adriana mutters as she lays back and states at the ceiling. Pedro soon starts snoring and Adriana gives the pillow barrier between them a glare. "Gran...I'm stuck flipper-cuffed to a snorer..."

* * *

*Baño — bathroom

*Pregunta — question

*Mapa — map

*Idiota — idiot

*Gran — great

*Buenas noches — good night


	8. On La Princesa Sierra

**A.N.— Okay, here is chapter 8! :D Enjoy! :)**

* * *

Chapter 8: On La Princesa Sierra

Pedro wakes up and pulls the pillow, that had served as Adriana's pillow barrier last night, off of him. He turns his head and looks over at Adriana. She is still asleep and he smiles a little. 'This is still the best assignment ever...' He thinks happily as he watches her sleep. Adriana begins to stir. She turns her head and opens her eyes at first with a smile, but then she sees Pedro and her smile quickly switches to a frown. "What are you smiling at, niño?" She mutters at him with a glare as she sits up.

"Nada*." Pedro says as he stops smiling at her, though he would have continued if Adriana hadn't glared at him.

Adriana rolls her eyes. "Oh, just shut up." She tries to get out of the bed, but is stopped by the flipper-cuffs pulling her flipper back towards Pedro. She glares angrily at the cuffs. "Darn..." She mumbles under her breath. "I had hoped yesterday was just a nightmare..."

"Nope...You really were arrested by me yesterday and you really did make us lose the cuff's keys out the window..." Pedro says looking at her. Adriana looks at him with another glare. "What?"

"What part of 'shut up' do you not comprendes*? The shut? Or the up? Or do you _want_ me to help _shut_ you _up_?" She growls at him.

Pedro puts up his flippers and lifts one of Adriana's, too. "Sorry...Didn't mean to anger the _prisoner_...Who obviously woke up on the wrong side of the bed..." He says jokingly. Adriana continues to glare at him for a few more minutes before rolling her eyes.

"Just get out of the bed so that I can." She says with a slight growl in her voice.

Pedro looks at her. "You're really not a morning person, are you?" He asks as he gets out of the bed. Adriana follows him off the bed.

"I am when I do not wake up flipper-cuffed to a _cop_."

"I see..." Pedro says silently. Adriana drags him towards the bathroom and Pedro looks at her curiously.

"Alright, Copper, you get to do that close your ojos thingy you talked about last night." Adriana says and gives him a look.

Pedro looks at her for a moment, trying to remember what she was referring to. He then makes an 'oh' face. "Okay..." He says and covers his eyes with his free flipper.

* * *

"Alright. Can we _go_ now?" Adriana asks as she impatiently taps her foot.

Pedro is getting his backpack ready to go. "One more moment..."

"But you said that hours ago!"

"I did not! I said that two seconds ago when you last asked..." Pedro zips his backpack with his one free flipper before swinging it around and putting it on. "Alright, _now_ we can go." He says.

"It's about time." Adriana says and rolls her eyes. She is still not in a very good mood. Pedro waddles to the door, leading Adriana behind him. He opens it and waddles to the elevator. He hits the button for the lobby level and they wait a few minutes as the elevator slowly goes down. When it opens, Pedro goes over to a penguin behind a counter to sign that he is finished with the room. He and Adriana then go out the door. "So...Are we waddling to the boat? Or are we driving?"

"Neither." Pedro says. "We're taking a taxi."

"Por qué*?"

"Porque* I do not feel like walking all that way, nor do I want to try driving while cuffed to you."

Adriana looks at him. "Then you could un-cuff—"

"No. Just, no." Pedro says giving Adriana a small look and Adriana sighs a little. "Oh, will you stop with all the sighing, por favor*? No matter how much you sigh, I'm not changing my decision, okay? Plus, it's getting incredibly molesto*!"

"What if that was the point of them, Pedrrrrro?" Adriana retorts with a smirk.

Pedro rolls his eyes. He then waves down a passing taxi and gives Adriana a small shove into it. "To the docks, por favor." He tells the taxi driver and sits back in his seat. Pedro watches things go by in the window as he silently dreads getting on to a boat. He hated boats. All the ups and downs and this ways and thats, the getting tossed around like una ensalada*, he hated it. Pedro is already starting to feel a little queasy just thinking about it. 'I really don't see what Diego likes so much about barcos*... Planes are so much better.' Pedro thinks.

Adriana gets bored of looking out her window after a little while. She has already seen all the things in Barcelona that they are now passing anyway. So, she looks over at Pedro with a small, curious frown. 'I wonder what he's being all thoughtful about...' She thinks silently. Adriana goes back to looking out her window again for a few minutes more before growing bored of it again. She boredly pokes Pedro with her free flipper. "Hey, Copper, how much longer until we're there?" She asks and Pedro shrugs a little in reply. Adriana raises a nonexistent eyebrow. "Tú no sabes?*"

"Sí."

"Is that a sí, you know or a sí you don't know?"

"Sí."

Adriana gives him a weird look. "That wasn't an answer choice..." She waves her flipper in front if Pedro's face. "¡Hola! Earth to Pedro!"

"Huh? What?" Pedro asks coming out from his thoughts and looking at Adriana.

"How much longer?" She asks again.

"Oh, uh...I'd say about...ten minutes más o menos*?" He says and then goes back to looking out his window.

Adriana watches him curiously. "Annnnd What are you thinking about?"

"Nada." Pedro says shortly and looks at her again. He figures his hatred of boats is not something he should be telling to a prisoner...Even if the prisoner is a very pretty señorita...

"Yeah right. That was not a 'nada' nada." She says giving him a look. "So, what are you _really_ thinking about?"

"Classified."

She rolls her eyes. "Of course it is..." Adriana leans a bit closer to Pedro. "Why don't you de-classify the thought?"

"How about I don't and say I did instead?" Pedro replies, giving Adriana a slightly irked look.

"Fine..." Adriana mutters and looks back out her window, very bored. She still is curious to know what Pedro is thinking so hard about.

"Señor y señora—" Starts the taxi driver.

"Señorita." Adriana corrects, giving the driver a glare in his mirror.

"Excuse me. Señor y _señorita_, we are now approaching the docks." He says.

Pedro nods. "Okay, gracias, señor." He replies. In a few minutes the taxi driver parks and Pedro opens the door and gets out, pulling Adriana a little as he does so. Pedro pays the driver and then starts waddling a bit slowly towards the boat. He looks at the name of the boat as he gets closer. _La Princesa Sierra*._ Pedro's eyes widen a little. He knows this boat...And it's captain.

A brown eyed penguin with a captain's hat and his flippers behind his back waddles onto the deck followed behind by a young brown-eyed, light gray feathered chick. The adult penguin surveys his deck with a small grin. "Ah, Pedro, buenas tardes! For what reason am I as lucky as to have mi hermano menor* on mi barco?" He asks Pedro.

"Euhm, buenos tardes a ti también*, Diego..." Pedro says.

"Hola, Uncle Pedwo!" The chick exclaims with a large smile from behind Diego.

Pedro turns his head a little and looks at the chick with a small smile. "Hola to you, too, Alejandro." He says.

Adriana looks at the scene with immense boredom. "Look, chicos*, this is all very touchy and everything, but can't we just get this boat onward already?" She asks.

Diego looks at Adriana curiously and then he looks at Pedro. "That's some mujer* you've got there, brother..." He murmurs.

"What!? You think—? Oh, no, no, no, no..." Pedro says and shakes his head. "Though I wish it was that way." He says silently to Pedro in a whisper with a wink. "Actually, Diego, this mujer is a criminal known as 'La Sombra' and I'm taking her in to the base." He explains.

"Then why didn't you take a plane?" Diego asks.

"Commander Harold told me that he wasn't providing one...And I left my credit card at home in Peru..." Pedro mutters.

"I see..." Diego says with a thoughtful look and nod. He then shrugs. "Alright...I'll make sure to have you a bucket this time, okay? Because I _really_ don't want to have to mop up after you again. That was just way to disgusting." He chuckles.

Adriana looks both weirdly and curiously at Pedro and Diego. "Bucket?" she asks.

"Uh huh." Says little Alejandro as he tugs on the hem of Adriana's cloak. "Uncle Pedwo get sick. Vewy yucky." He says and makes a face.

"You don't say?" Adriana says and looks at Pedro, who currently is ignoring her and Alejandro.

* * *

*Nada — nothing

*Comprendes — understand

* Por qué? — Why?

* Porqué — because

* Por favor — please

* Molesto — annoying

* Una ensalada — a salad

* Barcos — boats

* Tú no sabes? — You don't know?

* Más o menos — plus or minus / more or less

*La Princesa Sierra — The Princess Sierra

*Mi hermano menor — my little brother

*Buenas tardes a ti también — Good afternoon to you, too

*Chicos — boys

* Mujer — woman


	9. It's Not What It Looks Like!

**A.N.— Hello :D here is the next chapter! I hope you enjoy it :)**

* * *

Chapter 9: It's Not What It Looks Like!

Pedro looks at his older brother, Diego, with a very unamused look. "I don't think that I'll need a bucket, thank you very much." He says with a frown.

Diego shrugs. "Okay...But if you do get sick, keep it off of my deck, por favor." He then gets Alejandro and waddles back to the captain's quarters with him. "Poor pescados*..." He mumbles as he does so.

Adriana looks at Pedro. "So...You're seasick prone?" She asks; Pedro only silently shrugs. "...And if you _do_ get sick...I have to stay _cuffed_ to you?!"

"I don't plan on getting sick, Adriana." He says kind of silently with a small frown.

Fifteen minutes later Pedro is leaned over the side of _La Princesa Sierra_ throwing up. Adriana stands beside him with an amused smirk, turned slightly away so that she isn't viewing him retching. "I thought you said you didn't plan on getting seasick, Copper? Did you forget so quickly?" She asks.

"Will you please hush?" Pedro asks silently with a green tinge to his face. The boat hits another fairly large wave and Pedro throws up again.

"And why should I do that?"

Pedro swallows with his eyes closed for a moment as he tries to get his stomach back under his submission again. "Because...If you do not...I will make you..." He kind of pants.

Adriana gives him a small smile with a raised nonexistent eyebrows. "Ooh, I'm so scared! Little seasick copper Pedrrrrrrrro will make me be quiet!" She says with a faked scared expression and a laugh.

Pedro glares sickly at her and Adriana laughs a little harder. He rolls his eyes and looks back at the deep, dark, blue-green water. It both looks pretty and sickening at the same time with all of its constant motion. Pedro feels a bit bad for the fish and hopes that he isn't throwing up on any of their homes as he vomits again. "Adriana...Please...Be quiet...For just a few minutes...Okay?" He asks her silently and sickly.

Adriana looks at Pedro and for a moment and she feels just a bit bad for him. "Fine." She says with a small sigh and stops talking. She looks out at the water for a few minutes as she thinks. 'Now how the atún am I going to get away? Hmmm...' She looks silently around the boat for anything she can possibly swipe to unlock the flipper-cuffs when they're back on land again. 'Ah hah! That could work!' She thinks excitedly as she sees a small fishing hook not too, too far away. Adriana looks at Pedro and then at the cuff links. She wonders if she can reach it.

She decides to try. Adriana inches slowly over as far as she can without making the cuff-links too tense. She then stretches with her left flipper towards the hook. 'Come on! Just un poco* closer!' She thinks and stretches towards it harder. She leans more and makes the cuffs just a little more tense. Adriana leans and stretches more, standing on one foot. Her flipper brushes against the hook just as a wave hits and rocks the boat. Adriana looses her balance and falls over.

"Whoa!" Pedro exclaims as he is suddenly pulled over by Adriana. He lands on top of her with wide eyes and now bright red in the face instead of green-tinged.

Adriana looks at Pedro with wide eyes also. 'Heh...Whoops...' She thinks silently. They just stay there staring wide-eyed at each other for a few moments.

"Hey! Whoa!" Diego exclaims as he waddles up. He covers up Alejandro's eyes with his flipper. "Not on my deck, please!"

Pedro quickly scrambles off of Adriana. "No, Diego, it's not what it looks like!"

Diego holds up a flipper. "Say no more, Pedro, just next time you want some alone time with your 'prisoner', find a room first." Diego waddles back to the wheel of the boat with his flipper still over Alejandro's eyes.

Pedro watches open-beaked after him and then looks at Adriana with a deep blush. "I-I am so sorry, Adriana..." He says and helps her up.

"It's fine..." She says. "I'm the one who...Tripped and took you with me." Adriana partially lies with a very, very small blush. She can't believe that she had been so clumsy...And hadn't yelled at him to get off of her either...She clears her throat and regains her annoying, I'm-here-against-my-will composure. "At least you didn't throw up on me, Copper, if you had, we would have had issues...Big issues." She says with a small look.

"Heh...Right..." Pedro mutters silently. He looks back out at the moving water. He doesn't feel all that seasick anymore, but instead he feels kind of...Lovesick. He glances at Adriana. She truely is the loveliest prisoner he's ever had to take to the base. Pedro even likes her incessant wisecracks, sarcasm, and sass. He gives a small sigh and looks back out at the ocean. 'I doubt that she'll ever feel the same way...' He thinks a bit sadly with another small sigh.

Adriana looks back at the hook with a very small and silent sigh. 'I had been so close...If only I hadn't been cuffed to this cute fool!' She thinks angrily, but then her eyes widen. '_Cute_ fool?! Adriana, what the smoked atún is wrong with you!?' She thinks surprised at herself for thinking such a thing. '...Plus, if I wasn't cuffed to him I wouldn't have needed to reach that hook in the first place...' Adriana turns her head a little and looks at Pedro. He looks a bit sad about something. She opens her beak for a moment to ask if there is something bothering him, but quickly shuts it back as she remembers that she shouldn't care if he's upset about something or not, seeing as how he is her captor...

Pedro sighs a little again before looking at Adriana. She looks to him as if she is having a silent, mental argument with herself over something. Pedro gives her a slightly funny look as he wonders what she is having internal conflicts about. "Umm...Penny for your thoughts?" He asks.

Adriana looks at Pedro weirdly. "Why would I tell you what I'm thinking for a penny?" She asks. "Maybe for a thousand Euros...But for a single penny? Not likely, Copper...But good try." She says.

"...You know I really wasn't going to give you a penny, verdad*?" Pedro asks curiously.

Adriana looks at him. "Well, duh, I'm not stupid." She says and rolls her eyes. "I'm just not going to share my thoughts with the seasick, curious cop that has dragged me onto a boat."

"Oh..." Pedro looks back out at the sea. The sun is just now starting its climb down into the ocean creating a beautiful sunset. Pedro smiles some and glances at Adriana who appears to be watching the pretty sunset, too. 'Well...At least I can say we basically always have the memory of tripping and falling onto each other and watching this sunset together...' He thinks happily. 'Even if she doesn't ever like me back.'

* * *

_*Pescados — fish_

_*Un poco — a little_

_*Verdad? — Right?_


	10. Brunch in Brazil

**A.N.— Okay, here is chapter 10 :D I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 10: Brunch in Brazil

The next morning Adriana wakes up before Pedro. She slowly moves the pillow barricade and looks at him for a moment. 'Cute fool...' She thinks silently. 'Adriana, you can't be going loca now. You need to concentrate on escaping.' She tells herself. Adriana then looks around the room. She looks once again for something to unlock the lock with. There appears to be a small metal piece of something over at the wall. Adriana looks at it curiously. She doesn't actually have any idea of _what_ the halibut it is...Though she doesn't really care. It looks like it can serve as something to open the cuffs, and that's all that really matters to her. Pedro suddenly turns over in the bunk with a mumble and jerks Adriana over back towards him. She looks at him with a small glare. "Can't you stay still in your sleep?" She mutters.

"Nope." Pedro yawns and looks groggily at Adriana. "No more than you can not snore in yours."

Adriana looks at Pedro with a slightly open beak. "I do _not_ snore!"

Pedro looks at her slightly amused. "Well, if it wasn't you snoring, then that must have been one loud and sleepy fish." He says with a small yawn and a laugh. Adriana looks at Pedro with narrowed eyes. "Jeez...Tough crowd..." Pedro murmurs as he sees that Adriana hadn't appreciated his humor. He runs a flipper over some of his feathers and straightens them.

"We'll be docking soon." Diego says as he suddenly peeks his head into the room.

Pedro nods. "Alright, gracias." He calls after him. He then looks at Adriana.

Adriana looks back at him and places her free flipper on her hip. "_What_?" She asks shortly.

"Nada." Pedro says and shakes his head a little. He is a bit surprised that she isn't shouting at him to get up already.

Adriana looks weirdly at Pedro before trying to get out of the bunk. She gets as far out of it as she can and then looks at Pedro a bit impatiently. "Well, Pedrrrrrro? What's taking you so long?" She asks.

'And there's the impatient fussing...' Pedro thinks with a small smile. He gets out of the bunk. "Nada. Nada is taking me so long."

"Well, then hurry up! Let's get off this barco." She says and impatiently taps her foot.

Pedro looks at her. He wonders if this is how it is with married penguins, with the bossy, impatient wife and the dragged-along, patient husband...He thinks that if that _is_ how it is with married couples, that he really wouldn't mind that at all. "Alright, alright, I'm coming." He says and starts waddling out quickly, kind of dragging Adriana behind him. "Fast enough for you, Adriana?" He asks with a smirk.

"Sí, sí, very cómico*..." Adriana mutters unamused. She quickly grabs the piece of metal as they pass it and hides it in her feathers with a sly smile. She then waddles faster so that the cuffs aren't so tense and so that Pedro wouldn't possibly get suspicious. They then waddle out onto the deck.

Pedro waves goodbye to his brother and nephew before Adriana rolls her eyes and drags him quickly off _La Princesa Sierra_ and onto the wooden docks. "Palitos de pescados*! You're sure in a hurry, aren't you?" He says with a raised nonexistent eyebrow.

"Pfft! Hurry? Me? No...I'm not in a hurry, not at all." Adriana says and rolls her eyes again quite annoyed.

"Well..." Pedro says as he sees some of the restaurants that they are passing. "If you are not in a hurry...How about we stop somewhere for a little brunch? Sí?" He looks back at the restaurants a bit hopefully.

Adriana stops and thinks this over for a moment. True, she is rather hungry...But the quicker they get away from civilization, the quicker she could loose herself from Pedro and leave him out in the forest for the snakes and things to eat him...Or something like that. She looks at Pedro and catches his hopeful expression. Adriana has to admit that the face Pedro had just made was kind of cute...But, cute or not cute, she isn't about to sound like she wants to go have brunch with him. "Ugh...Fine, I guess we can do that." She says with a faked groan of irritation.

Pedro without thinking does a small happy flipper-pump. "Yes!" He exclaims before realizing how silly he must look and looking at Adriana. He puts his free flipper to his beak and acts like he's clearing his throat a little. "Ahem...You–You didn't see nada*..." He says with a small blush. He wonders what Adriana must think of him, a grown adult, acting for a moment like a small child. Pedro then thinks that he probably doesn't actually want to know what Adriana thought of that. He figures he probably wouldn't like whatever she thought.

Adriana looks strangely at Pedro with a raised nonexistent eyebrow. 'Does he always get this excited about getting to eat?' She wonders silently as she continues to look a bit weirdly at him. She thinks that that had been rather funny and cute...And not the least bit mature or 'agenty' in any way whatsoever. "Right..." She says and rolls her eyes a little.

Pedro nods and looks around. He thinks over the different restaurant choices and chooses one at random before dragging Adriana to it. "How does this one look? Too few penguins for your liking?" He asks a bit jokingly as he looks back at her.

"Not that I really care, seeing as how this is just brunch, I think it's fine." She says with a shrug. Pedro nods and drags her happily to a table for two. He without thinking pulls out a seat for Adriana before sitting in the other chair to the right of it. Adriana looks at Pedro and the chair for a moment with slightly raised nonexistent eyebrows. 'What? Does he think this is a 'brunch date' or something?' She thinks silently as she sits down in the chair he had pulled out for her. As she sits, Adriana inconspicuously feels for the small piece of metal she had swiped from Diego's boat. It is still there and she smiles a little bit relievedly.

A waiter comes with two menus and brings them to Adriana and Pedro. Pedro takes his with a nod and a small smile to him, while Adriana just takes the menu. "So..." Pedro starts as he looks the menu over. "Do you know what you'd like to order?" He asks and glances over at Adriana.

Adriana shrugs. "Sí, I believe so." She says and shuts her menu. Her sight falls on the knife near her plate and she is tempted to snatch it and keep it for later use, seeing as how Pedro has already confiscated all of her other knives and has left her weapon-less.

"Yo también*." Pedro says as he gently closes his menu and sets it down on the table. He sees that Adriana is looking at the knife and looks at her. "Don't even think about it, Adriana." He says as he lets his flipper tap his gun which is hidden in his feathers, like a few of Adriana's knives. Adriana growls a little and crosses her flippers across her chest and crosses Pedro's flipper in with them, too. Pedro blushes a little as he feels his flipper brush against her chest feathers. "Euhm...My fl-flipper?" He stutters and glances at it before looking Adriana back in her bright, sparkly green eyes.

"Huh? Oh..." Adriana notices his flipper and uncrosses her flippers.

Pedro quickly reclaims his flipper and recomposes himself. "Euhm, so...Are you...Erm, ready to order?" He asks her.

"Sí." Adriana says with a nod. Pedro then nods in reply and motions to the waiter that they are ready to order their brunch. He then orders a water and some fish with fruit. Adriana orders the same thing and eyes Pedro a bit suspiciously.

Pedro catches her suspicious look and gives her a curious one back. "What?" He asks.

"You ordered the same thing as me..." She says.

Pedro looks at her. "So? Is that some unheard of thing?"

Adriana shakes her head. "No...No, it's just un poco extraño*."

"Extraño? No, Adriana, I'd say it is just a neat coincidence." He shrugs.

"Hmpf." Adriana says with a small snort. "There are _no_ such things as coincidences." She says.

Pedro gives her a funny look. "Well, Adriana, if there aren't coincidences in the world, then _what_ the _halibut_ would the importance of us ordering the same thing have? Doesn't that sound just un poco loco to you?" He asks. "Because yo sé* that sounds muy extraño para mí*."

"Yo no sé*..." Adriana shrugs and says a bit silently. "Ask a philosopher or psychologist or something." She says.

"But neither of those just brought up this loco subject..." He says and gives her a look. The waiter then brings their drinks and food and Pedro nods at him. "You're the one who did."

"I know I did. But...How about we drop it now and move on, okay?" Adriana asks as she picks up her fork and starts on her brunch.

Pedro shrugs and also picks up his fork. "Fine, whatever." He replies. "So...Is it a coincidence too that you said I wouldn't be able to keep you as my prisoner for a day and I've kept you as my prisoner for over two now?" He asks with a smirk.

Adriana shoots him a glare. "I said _drop_ the topic, Pedro." She says with a slight growl.

"Fine. Fine." He says and puts up a flipper. He takes a sip of his water as he thinks a little. "But...Isn't it one?" He asks curiously. Adriana glares at him and hits him on the head with one of the fish off of Pedro's own plate. "Hey!" He exclaims as he rubs his head and looks a bit surprised at Adriana.

"Hey yourself." She says hiding a smile. "I said to drop it and you continued instead."

"But I fail to see how that results in getting hit with brunch!" Pedro mutters as he wipes his head with a napkin.

"Oh...It didn't really."

Pedro stops mid-wipe with the napkin and looks at her. "Then _why_ the smoked halibut did you hit me with a _fish_?!" He asks as he lowers the napkin.

Adriana swallows back an urge to laugh. "It was partially for my amusement." She says and laughs a little at the face Pedro then makes. "What? Do you cops not like a bit of a joke now and then?"

"Amusement? Joke?" Pedro mutters a bit aggravated. "I'll show you a joke in a minute..." He mumbles as he takes another drink of his water to calm down. He isn't the least bit amused about getting hit on the head with a fish.

"Of course you will." Adriana says with a laugh and rolls her eyes. She lifts her water to take a sip just as Pedro jerks the cuffs a bit quickly and causes her to spill it on herself. Adriana gasps from the cold ice water and looks at Pedro a bit shocked.

He then looks at her. "Oops." Pedro says with a slight laugh in his voice. Adriana glares at him for a moment before laughing a little and he laughs some, too. "I see what you mean by the jokes. That was indeed very amusing."

Adriana looks at him with a slightly raised nonexistent eyebrow. 'Maybe he's not as goody-goody as I thought...Hmmm...' She thinks silently. "Was it, Pedrrrrrro?" She asks. "You mean you coppers don't pull little things like this often?"

"Eh...Depends on how often you mean by often and what kind of things you mean..." Pedro shrugs and eats some more of his brunch.

"Wow..." Adriana mumbles. "It must be so boring to be so good like that."

Pedro shrugs again. "It's not that bad, really...Sure it gets kind of old some días, but you learn to live with it." He says.

Adriana looks at him from over her now half-empty cup. "I see..."

* * *

_Translations:_

_*Cómico — comical _

_*Palitos de pescados — fish-sticks_

_*Nada — anything (in this case seeing as how it can also mean 'nothing')_

_*Yo también __— me too_

_*Extraño — strange/weird_

_*Yo sé — I know_

_*Muy extraño para mí — very strange to me_

_*Yo no sé — I don't know_


	11. The Rainforest

**A.N.— Okay, here is chapter 11! :D I hope you enjoy :D**

* * *

Chapter 11: The Rainforest

Pedro and Adriana finish their brunch and Pedro pays for it and orders some extra to-go. He puts these extra fishes and fruit into his backpack for later. They then get up from the table and waddle away from the little restaurant. "So, where are we going now, Copper?" Adriana asks as she secretly taps her little piece of metal to make sure she hasn't lost it. It's still there and she smiles a very tiny grin.

"This way." Pedro says with a small shrug as he drags Adriana in a direction towards a large mass of trees.

Adriana follows Pedro with a bored expression. "And what exactly is this way?" She asks as she looks at the trees. The trees are all tall. Their trunk sizes vary much, though, as do the shades of their bark with all the different mosses and lichens growing on them. Adriana thinks that these trees are very, very different than those that she would hide behind and in the branches of back in Spain.

Pedro glances back at Adriana as he continues forward. He pays little attention to the surrounding scenery; he has seen it hundreds of times already and is quite used to it. "Peru. Peru and Base R are this way." He says as he continues to waddle farther into the dense forest.

"Oh...Are you sure, Pedrrrro?" She asks as she looks around. Adriana can't see anything that he could possibly know where he's going from. Everything just seems to look the same to her.

Pedro nods. "Sí, I'm muy seguro*." He says as he turns and starts down a 'path' between some trees. There almost is a small skip in his step as he waddles along. He thinks that Commander Harold may have actually done him a favor by making him take the long way to escort 'La Sombra' to the base. He thinks firstly that he gets to spend more time with her before he has to lock her up, and secondly that he gets to waddle down his favorite route again. Every time he goes down this route is different, but each time is always an adventure which thrills Pedro to his very core.

Adriana nods a little and waddles a bit quicker. She thinks that Pedro appears to really know what he is doing and going. "Have you been this way before?" She asks a bit curiously as she looks at the trees surrounding them and at the vibrant exotic flowers that are scattered around.

"Hundreds of times, Adriana." Pedro says with a smile back at her. "I know this forest like the back of mi aleta*." He grins. "Don't even need un mapa anymore."

"But, you still have the map for just in case, verdad?" Adriana asks and stops waddling for a moment, looking questioningly at Pedro.

"Of course, of course!" Pedro says with a nod. "What? Are you scared, Adriana?" He asks and gives her a look.

Adriana looks back at him. "Me? Scared? Pfft! No, of course not. I just simply don't want to get lost." She says.

Pedro looks at her and then shrugs. "Okay, then I don't want to hear any 'What was that, Pedro?!'s while we're out here then." He says with a small smirk.

"No worries, you won't." Adriana retorts with almost a small growl in her voice. She then sticks her beak a little up into the air with an air of stubbornness to it. She starts waddling past Pedro.

Pedro smirks a little and follows after Adriana. "Oh, it's my turn to be the dragged along one? 'Kay." He says jokingly. He ducks a branch that Adriana releases behind herself, purposely trying to let Pedro get whipped by it. "Hey!" He exclaims.

"Hola, cómo estás?*" Adriana says rolling her eyes. "Personalmente, estoy muy molesta*."

"Estoy muy bien, también, Adriana*." Pedro says with a laugh as he ducks another branch. The two penguins continue on for a while until they come to a stream. Pedro stops at it and fills a canteen with the clear water with a nod. "This should last us until we come to another source of agua*." He says, looking up at Adriana.

Adriana nods. "That's gran...But what if it doesn't? Don't you have another one of those for just in case?" She asks.

Pedro continues to look at her. "No, I don't. I wasn't planning originally to have to trek through the rainforest, dragging an argumentative, whiny prisoner along with me." He says as he puts the canteen back into his backpack and then stands up and swings the bag back onto his shoulder.

Adriana looks at him slightly open beaked. "I'm not whiny! Argumentative, sure. But I'm not whiny!" She says with her voice going a bit higher to disprove her point.

"Then stop with all the worrying about supplies and stuff. We'll be fine, okay? I've been this way plenty of times. I know what I'm doing." Pedro says rolling his eyes. "Now come on, it's going to get dark soon and I'd like to find a spot to make camp before it does." He starts waddling ahead again dragging Adriana along behind him.

Adriana waddles quickly after him as she looks at her surroundings. She can't think of how she is going to be able to find her way back after she un-cuffs herself from this...Fool. Adriana shakes her head to keep herself from adding cute. 'I have no time for crush foolishness...Especially not a foolish crush on the hombre* who arrested me. I'd have to be loca to be falling for him. Completely insane.' She thinks silently. She bets that counting trees as they pass them would not have worked seeing as how this line they're going in is anything but straight. She also can't leave crumbs behind her because firstly, other animals will eat them, and secondly, because she doesn't have any to leave behind. She is so not going to tear her cloak to leave a trail, and Pedro so isn't giving her anytime to mark a trail anyway. Adriana sighs a little. 'I'll have to take his map.' She thinks with a small nod.

Pedro eventually stops near a clump of trees. Adriana looks at the trees. This clump doesn't look any different to her from the clump that they had past a few minutes back. "We'll make camp here." Pedro says with a nod towards the trees.

Adriana looks at him. "Where here?" She asks a bit curiously.

"Right here at the base of the tree." Pedro says with a nod towards the large tree. "If a predator comes, as could be very possible, we can just climb up the tree." He shrugs.

Adriana looks at the tree and then at Pedro. "But what about predators that climb?" She asks with a small smirk. "How would climbing a tree be helpful?"

Pedro looks at her and sighs a little. "You really like to look at the bright side, don't you?" He says sarcastically. "If a climbing predator comes, then we'll slide really fast from it until we lose it." He says. "Feliz*?"

"No, of course I'm not feliz. I am an arrested criminal being dragged through a wild rainforest by a curious, annoying, boring cop. Do you _think_ I'm happy?" Adriana growls at Pedro.

Pedro shrugs. "Sounded like something to have fun and be happy about to me." He says. "I'd be muy feliz if I were you and was being dragged along by a curious, annoying cop like me...Say you were arrested by mi amigo Bobby for instance, you wouldn't be allowed to say a single thing at all and he'd be much, much stricter than me...I think." He says. "I'm more of a 'fun cop'...So the fact that you think I'm boring just means that you're the boring one actually and are just confused." He says with a grin.

Adriana gives Pedro a look. "Is that so?" She asks.

Pedro gives a short nod. "Very." He says before sitting his backpack back down. He gets out the canteen and some food and offers them to Adriana. He then pulls out a couple of blankets and a small pillow. Pedro lays out one of the blankets on the ground and sits the pillow at the top of it, near the base of the tree trunk. He then unfolds the other blanket and lays it on top of the other one. He sits down on the blankets and yanks a little on the cuffs to pull Adriana down onto the blankets, also.

Adriana sits down with an unamused look towards Pedro. "Did you have to pull? You couldn't have just asked me to sit down verbally?" She asks as she sits the food and canteen down in front of them on the blankets.

Pedro gets the canteen and drinks some from it with a small shrug. "Would you have sat if I had asked?" He retorts as he closes the cap on the canteen again and picks up one of the fish he had gotten to-go for them from the restaurant and starts on it.

Adriana gets a fish and starts eating in it, too. "Maybe I would have, maybe I wouldn't." She shrugs. "Guess you'll never know now."

Pedro looks at her as he finishes his fish. "Hmm...Sí, I guess you've got a point." He says. He offers the water once again to her and Adriana takes it and drinks a little from the canteen before handing it back. Pedro drinks a little more from it before putting it and the extra food back into his backpack. He sits the backpack beside the pillow before pulling up the top blanket and laying down with his head on the backpack.

Adriana watches him curiously. She wonders why he hadn't taken the pillow and make her sleep on the bag. She knows that that's what most cops would have done.

Pedro watches Adriana as she lays down on the pillow next to him. "I'm sorry that I don't have another pillow for you to use as your pillow-wall between us." He says quietly as he looks up at the tree branches and the spots of dark sky showing through here and there.

Adriana looks at Pedro. "It's fine." She says. She doesn't even want the pillow barrier up right now anyway strangely.

Pedro nods. "Okay..." He says with a small yawn. "Buenas noches, Adriana." He says quietly before falling asleep.

"Buenas noches..." Adriana replies silently before turning over some and watching Pedro sleep some. She silently takes out her piece of metal and looks at it and then at Pedro again. She sighs and puts it back hidden in her feathers. Adriana figures that it may be best to stick a little longer with Pedro seeing as how he knows this forest and she does not and he is also sleeping on the map. Adriana lays back on her back and stares up silently at the tree tops before she also falls asleep.

* * *

_Translations:_

_* Seguro __—_ sure

_* Mi aleta __— my flipper_

___* Hola, cómo estás? ____— Hello, how are you?_

_______*Personalmente, estoy muy molesta.______— Personally, I'm very annoyed._

_______________*Estoy muy bien, también, Adriana. ________________— I am very well, also, Adriana._

_______________________________*Agua ________________— water_

_______________________________________________*Hombre ________________— man_

_______________________________________________________________*Feliz ________________— happy_


	12. Queen Bee

**A.N.— And here is chapter 12! :D I hope y'all enjoy :D**

* * *

Chapter 12: Queen Bee

Pedro starts to wake up a little. He tries to turn over to sleep a little longer in a better position, but then he notices that there's something warm and feathery keeping him from being able to turn over. Pedro curiously opens one of his eyes a little and looks beside him and sees that Adriana is snuggled up close to him. He grins and closes his eye again. Then he gently lays his flipper around her. 'Yeah, I'm so not going to wake her up right now...' He thinks with a wide smile before falling back asleep.

About an hour later, Adriana wakes up. She opens her eyes and sees Pedro and smiles a practically invisible smile before she notices that his flipper is around her. "What the atún!?" She exclaims, immediately sitting up and scooting as far from Pedro as the cuffs will let her.

Pedro wakes up and looks curiously and sleepily at her. "What's the problema?" He asks with a yawn.

"_You_!" Adriana points an accusing flipper at Pedro. "You were _cuddling_ me!"

"No, that was all _you_, Adriana." Pedro says shaking his head. "I was just lying here, sleeping; _you're_ the one who snuggled up." He says as he sits up and stretches. He ignores the malicious look Adriana gives him and gets the canteen and some fruit out from the backpack. "Desayuno*?" He offers.

"Por supuesto.*" She says as she rolls her eyes a little and gets the fruit. Pedro nods and starts on his own breakfast as he takes the map out from the backpack. Adriana looks curiously at him. "I thought you said that you don't need the map?" She says.

Pedro glances at her. "I don't really...I was just checking something..." He says as he rolls the map up again and stuffs it back into the pack.

"Sure you were..." She says giving him an unbelieving look. He looks unamusedly back at her. Adriana takes a bite of her banana and looks curiously at the map. "So where are we anyhow?" She asks.

"Brazil, in a forest." He says and sticks his tongue out a bit at her. Adriana looks at him with frown. Pedro laughs a bit in return. "But seriously, we are riiiiiiiigggggggghhhhhht here." He says and points at a spot on the map. "Right on course, as I had thought."

Adriana looks at him and takes another bite of her banana. "Mmbout hoooow mmannnee mmías unnnnntil mmmm mmave tmmm stammmrt mmmming mme mmmouse blmmm?" She asks as she finishes her banana.

Pedro looks blankly at her. "How about you swallow and try again without your boca* full?" He asks.

She looks at him before rolling her eyes and swallowing. "About how many días until I have to start singing the jailhouse blues?" She asks again.

"Oh." He says and then taps his beak in thought for a moment. "Dos to tres días? Maybe cuatro at most?" He says thoughtfully and looks at her."Most likely dos unless we run into some malo* weather or predators..."

"Okay." She says, almost resembling a sigh. Adriana then stands up and tugs Pedro up after her. "Let's start on our way then..."

Pedro looks at Adriana as if she's lost her mind. "Are you feeling alright?" He asks. "I mean...You're sounding almost like you _want_ to go to the prison!" He says surprised.

Adriana just shrugs. "Well, what else do you think there is for me to do out here?" She says. She looks at Pedro, trying to seem convincing that she isn't hiding any escape plans. She does have a plan, actually, but it requires the use of the map. That very same map that hasn't left Pedro's sight except when it's in the backpack which he never leaves unguarded...Pedro looks at Adriana scrutinizingly as he tries to determine whether she is lying to him or not and Adriana smiles a bit at him as innocently as she can fake and not seem fake. "I mean...All there are are trees and vicious predators that may try to make a snack of me if I tried to escape..." She says with a fakes somewhat scared look.

Pedro looks at her with a suspicious look. "So, a murderess like you is scared of a few snakes and jaguars?" He says with a small laugh. Adriana just shrugs a little. "Kind of difícil imaginar*..." He says. "But whatever...Let's get going..." He says as he picks up and swings his backpack onto his shoulder. He starts waddling further into the forest.

Adriana quietly follows Pedro and looks around the forest as they waddle. 'I wonder how many miles of these trees there are here...It seems to just go on _forever_...' She thinks slightly awed. 'There are sooooooo many good hiding spots, too." She thinks. 'But then again, you could probably get lost forever in here...' She looks over at a cluster of vibrantly colored flowers with a small smile. "Those are pretty..." She mumbles silently to herself. Pedro hears Adriana and glances over his shoulder at her and then at the flowers as he waddles. Adriana doesn't notice him noticing her and keeps waddling, looking at the flowers they pass.

"Enjoying the plant-life?" Pedro asks with a small smile and another glance back towards her.

Adriana looks at Pedro and shrugs a little. "I guess..." She says.

Pedro nods with a smile. "We could stop a moment and you could get a closer look if you want." He says with a small shrug. "There really isn't much of a rush to get to base, I mean, it's not like it's going to grow legs and runaway and time soon, is it?" He says with a small laugh.

"Umm..." Adriana looks at Pedro as she thinks this over. "I guess we could..." She says, trying not to sound that she actually likes the idea, like she does.

Pedro nods and stops waddling when they are near another clump of exotic flowers. Adriana kind of kneels down at them to look a bit more closely at them. "These are Peruvian Lilies by the way." He says with a smile. "Bonita, aren't they, Adriana?" He asks as he picks a large, peach-colored one with his free flipper and a sly glance back towards Adriana. He inconspicuously slides the flower into a pocket of his backpack.

Adriana nods as she looks at and sniffs the flowers a little. "Sí, they are muy bonita..." She says quietly with a small, barely noticeable blush. She can't believe that she is actually kneeling here, looking at native flowers when she is in cuffs with a cop on the way to a maximum security base. She looks at the flowers a little more before seeing a bee. "Eep!" She quietly yelps and backwards crawls quickly from the flowers, dragging Pedro along to the ground, too.

"Wah!?" He exclaims and looks at Adriana as if she has lost her head. "Are you suddenly loca?! Qué es tu problema, señorita*?!" He says looking at her confused at her suddenly terrified reaction.

"There was una abeja*!" Adriana says with wide eyes and a glance towards the flowers.

Pedro continues to look at Adriana as if she is crazy. "A _bee_?" He says. "A little bee?" He says with a small laugh. "A little honey bee caused you to flee the flores*? Seriously? You on regular basis face all kinds of terrifying things, and you're scared of _abejas_?!"

Adriana looks at Pedro and nods just a little. "Euhm...Sí..." She says silently and stands back up. She gets herself back in her cold way and looks at Pedro again. "And if you tell _anyone_, anyone at all, I will personally make sure you mysteriously disappear to your grave, got it?!" She growls.

"Yup, crystal." Pedro says with a small smirk. "The Shadow is scared of bees and wants to keep it a secret."

"Oh just shut up." Adriana growls with an unamused glare.

Pedro grins. "I don't have to. You're the one whom anything you say can be used against you in court." He says with a small laugh. "I can say whatever I want to say, seeing as how I'm the agent and you're the arrested criminal." He sticks his tongue out a bit jokingly at Adriana.

"Wow, you're soooooo mature." She says sarcastically while rolling her eyes. "I'm soooo lucky to have been arrested by YOU of ALL coppers..."She says. "Do you come with a shut up switch?"

"No, I'm sorry to say that, no, Adriana, I do not come with one of those." He answers with a laugh.

"Fantástico!" Adriana rolls her eyes again, not at all amused. She stands back up. "Let's get going already..." She says.

Pedro gives her a mock salute. "Yes, Abeja Reina* Adriana." He says. "Let us buzz onwards towards the base." Pedro is nearly beside himself, laughing at his own jokes.

Adriana looks at him half-amused. 'Well...He does have a rather interesting laugh...' She thinks as she watches him. "Are you finished making fun yet?" She asks. Pedro continues laughing for a few more minutes before nodding a little. "Great, then let's go, copper, before I try taking one of your weapons and freeing myself from your perpetual irritations." She says with an evil look. "And there are several ways I could do that, let me assure you..."

* * *

_Translations:_

_* Desayuno — breakfast_

_* Por supuesto — of course_

_* Boca — mouth_

_* Malo — bad_

_* Difícil imaginar — difficult to imagine_

_* Qué es tu problema, señorita? — What is your problem, miss?_

_* Una abeja — bee_

_* Flores — flowers_

_* Abeja reina — Queen bee_


	13. The Dangers of Silence

**A.N.— And here is chapter 13! :D I hope you enjoy :D**

* * *

**Chapter 13: The Dangers of Silence**

_"Great, then let's go, copper, before I try taking one of your weapons and freeing myself from your perpetual irritations." She says with an evil look. "And there are several ways I could do that, let me assure you..."_

Pedro looks amusedly at Adriana. "And you're the one in a position to be making threats?" He asks.

Adriana shrugs. "I'm sure if you're this annoying all the time, that your jefe* may actually thank me." She says. "He or she would have probably a much more peaceful existence, verdad?"

"Nah." Pedro says, shaking his head a little. "Plus I'm sure mi amigo Bobby would hunt you down if you did so." He laughs.

This time Adriana shakes her head. "Nah. I'd get rid of him just before you." She says. "Just so you'll shut tú boca* up about him for a few minutes." She says and gives him a look.

"You're bluffing." He says as he starts waddling forward again. Adriana follows him and rolls her eyes.

"You wish, Copper." She says. "You wish." Pedro ignores her and continues waddling. Adriana looks amusedly at him. "Forgot how to speak?" She asks. Pedro still ignores her. Adriana frowns a little. "Fine. Ignore me. Dos pueden jugar ese juego.*" She kind of growls. She had thought that she had wanted Pedro to be quiet, but she is not fond of being ignored.

Pedro smiles a bit and glances back at Adriana. 'Amazing how I can just stop talking and she will too.' He thinks. He looks around and finds a familiar landmark; a tree. Sure, to the untrained eye it is a tree just like all the others, but not to Pedro who has been this way so many times before. He knows this tree is the secret entrance to the Brazilian Base. The tree had been long hollowed out and an elevator installed inside that goes down to the hidden underground base. Pedro smiles a little and continues waddling. He at least knows that he is still heading in the right direction.

Adriana waddles behind Pedro feeling very bored. She has no interest at all for these boring trees anymore. 'Tonight I'm so going to get freed from this cop.' She thinks. 'Map or no map, I have my compass and a good natural sense of direction. I'll be completely fine without the stupid map.' Adriana looks at Pedro's back a little as she thinks. 'It'll be gran to back on my own again...' She then remembers about an aggravating penguin whom keeps trying to persuade her to join his gang and frowns a little. "Yup, completely on my own. There's no way I'm going to go join up with that idiota." She murmurs to herself and looks around some more again, bored.

Pedro hears her murmur and glances back over his shoulder at her again. "Completely on your own?" He asks curiously and confused. "Idiota? Joining up? Huh?" He immediately begins to think that Adriana may already have a boyfriend and feels a stone drop in his stomach. 'Maybe that would be for the best...' He thinks.

"Ehm..." She starts out and looks at Pedro. "Well, not that it's any of your business at all, there is this criminal, Jabez Stanton, he keeps trying to convince me to join this gang he is creating." She says with a small shrug. "Sorry to say for the guy, but that is just sooooooo not happening. I work alone when it comes to criminal activities." She smiles and says.

"Okay..." Pedro says, not really caring about all of that. He is more concerned at the moment about whether Adriana is dating this 'Sr. Stanton' or not.

Adriana nods. "Sí, and guapo* as he might be, I'm not really interested in dating a married pengüino*, you know?" She says with a small shrug. "Maybe if he didn't already have a hijo* already, though...I'm just not that fond of kids."

Pedro glances back at Adriana. 'Alright...So she isn't dating this Stanton guy...But she isn't fond of niños* either...' He thinks as he tries to think of if that is not worse than her already dating someone. "Have you ever been around kids to see if you like them?" He asks curiously.

"Nah." Adriana says, giving him a weird look and shaking her head. "I've seen enough of those little twerps running around in Spain...Little demonios* is more like it." She says with a snort. "Always whining and crying and tripping people up in the store. Pfft. Why the atún anyone would want to have any of those..._Things_?!"

"Oh..." Pedro replies and is quiet for a moment as he thinks. "Well, personally, I greatly disagree. Sure, children can be irritating, but they can be very adorable." He says with a small smile as he think of his nephew Alejandro and his friend Bob's son Edmond. "And think of it this way, you were a child once, too, you know." He says with a small laugh.

Adriana rolls her eyes with a small snort. "Those little monsters have just brainwashed you like they have done to other simpleminded adults." She says.

"Suuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrre." Pedro says with a weird glance back towards her and shakes his head a little with a glance upwards at the canopy way up above their heads.

The two penguins then travel in complete silence, each more interested in their own thoughts than in talking with the other. A moist and humid breeze gently rustles the leaves of the high, green canopy. The sound of a nearby stream can be heard as it flows quickly over the rocks of its bed. The native wild birds sing loudly and happily up in the branches. Some little monkeys hoot and call playfully up in the canopy. A few squirrels dart up the long tree trunks as Adriana and Pedro near them.

Then suddenly it goes silent.

Pedro is the first to notice the silence and stops waddling and looks around. Adriana stops right after him and looks at him strangely. "What?" She asks.

"Listen..." Pedro replies quietly as he looks still around them.

Adriana is silent for a moment and listens. "I don't hear anything." She says with a shrug.

Pedro nods. "Exactly..." He says silently and gets out his gun with his free-flipper. Adriana looks at him with a raised nonexistent eyebrow. He ignores her look though and flits his gaze around their surroundings suspiciously.

"I don't see what's wrong with a bit of silence." She says. "I mean, silent moments are the best time to murder someone." She says kind of loudly.

"_Shhh!_" He then says and gives Adriana a look. "Silence in a rainforest like this means danger is near. _Danger_. You know, like a _predator_? Something that would like to have us for lunch?" He whispers shortly at her.

Some low hanging branches of the brush softly scrape as something large pushes through them. Pedro hears this noise and turns quickly in the direction of it with narrowed eyes. He silently loads his small gun and its small click is amplified by the lack of other noises in the moist, silent air. Adriana stands there silently and feels instinctively for her favorite knife, but then remembers that Pedro has it. She does not like standing there, feeling defenseless if this _is_ a predator.

The branches stop moving and the sound stops. Pedro narrows his eyes more and gets into a defensive position with his gun. From the previous noises, he thinks he knows what creature this is. He hopes he is wrong. Suddenly, a snarl is heard and immediately followed by a jaguar as it pounces through the foliage towards the penguins. "I hate being right..." Pedro mutters as the jaguar seems to grin and starts circling them.

Adriana coldly watches the large spotted cat. She doesn't take her eyes off of it for a single moment, except for a single glance at Pedro. Pedro turns some as the jaguar walks around them. He doesn't let his, or Adriana's back for that matter, stay to the beast. "One the count of tres, we're going to make a break for it, Adriana." Pedro whispers a little harshly after a few moments to Adriana. She nods a little to show that she heard him. "Uno..." Pedro mumbles as he locks eyes with the jaguar. "Dos..." He still stares into the dark, hungry eyes. "Tres." Pedro shouts and then fires a bullet towards the cat.

The cat ducks the bullet and is momentarily distracted by it. He looks after it before turning his head back towards where his prey should be. But, the two penguins are no longer there. They are sliding quickly away from the area. The jaguar sniffs the air a little and looks around with his ears pricked. He then slinks after the scent of the two penguins.

* * *

_Translations:_

_* Jefe — boss_

_* Tú boca — your mouth_

_* __Dos pueden jugar ese juego — two can play that game_

_* Guapo — handsome_

_* Pengüino — penguin_

_* Hijo — son_

_* Niños — children (or boys)_

_* Demonios — demons_


End file.
